Team Cow

Getting a cow might seem like a large leap for  suburbanites like us, but we had good reasons. Milk had been part of our one-block feasts from the start—mainly for cheese. We’d been using milk from Straus Family Creamery, in Northern California . But if we could have a cow—especially a Jersey, a breed that gives particularly rich, delicious milk—we could get that much closer to one of our key ingredients.

Our city, Menlo Park, allows backyard cows. But for many reasons, including our total lack of experience, Team Cow decided our cow would be better off living on a farm and being taken care of by people who knew what they were doing—and could teach us.

The rewards so far include learning to milk by hand; the pleasure of wandering around a beautiful and well-managed farm with healthy cows; the incomparable flavor of sweet, fresh Jersey milk; and the fun of making cheese (you can find our recipes in The One-Block Feast).